At Cove Speech Therapy, we have a different approach! We want to make therapy functional and that is our goal, but we approach it through play as much as possible. We have a lot of training and tools that give us the opportunity to turn therapy into FUN!
Our dedicated and caring staff of speech pathologists work very closely with a larger team such as occupational therapists and dieticians so your care is continuous and fluid.
We have specialized training that never stops! We are always expanding our knowledge base and use specialized treatment tools including: SOS feeding therapy approach, PROMPT, Oral Placement Therapy (OPT), SOFFI, oromyofunctional therapy, DIRFloortime, AAC, Vital Stim, and TummyTimeMethod!
Our Mission
We know that what you want more than anything right now is for your kids to be happy and confident. Their stress and anxiety affects your whole family. We know you want to have a day without stress or tears. We strive to help children and their families reach their highest potential through individualized, highly effective, and fun therapy techniques.
Our Philosophy
At Cove Speech Therapy and Foodology Feeding Therapy Clinic, we know that kids learn best when they feel safe, comfortable, and happy. We believe this starts with the child's family. We really get to know our families and spend time to develop lasting relationships that are that foundation for that safe space to learn and grow. Families are very involved in therapy sessions and a continual part of their child's success. We believe in education and we are always teaching our families and our clients what we know and how to best advocate for their needs so that their children never stop progressing. Understanding the 'why' of how we do things is just as important!
Our Values
- 1. Innovative: We strive to always search beyond what we already know to come up with creative ways to achieve client goals.
- 2. Encouraging: We are full of positivity and are always encouraging and supportive.
- 3. Empowering: We educate families about the disorders, the treatment methods, and their options so they can be empowered to make the decision that is best for their family.
- 4. Detailed: We are detectives and leave no stone unturned! We believe there is never a skill deficit "just because"- something is causing it and finding out what it is is the best way to remediate the issue.
Our Therapists
Christine Miroddi Yoder, MA CCC-SLP, TSSLD, CLSE
Owner and Founder
While I have always had a passion for helping children and families, having a son of my own with a tongue tie has led me down a new path. I learned first hand the difficulties of infant feeding from a parent's point of view. I want to help families early on so that therapy is short and effective! We know from research the longer you wait, the harder it is. I love to be a detective and to figure out the root cause of the issue and then educate families about why they are experiencing the difficulties they see and develop a plan for how to remediate those issues. There is no greater excitement when a child has a huge breakthrough and blows past their original goals! As an adult with myofunctional issues of my own due to late diagnosed tongue tie, I have a unique perspective and I have found my passion and my purpose in helping people with these unique issues.
Christine has extensive continuing education and continues to love learning and growing as a therapist! She is trained in PROMPT, VitalStim (NMES) for swallowing, ABA, SOS Approach to Feeding, DIRFloortime Certified, and trained in Oromyofunctional therapy through the IAOM, the TummyTime Method(TM), Oral Placement Therapy (OPT), and SOFFI for premature babies and medically fragile infants. She is also a Certified Lactation Supporter and Educator (CLSE). Additional post-graduate training and coursework in Autism, AAC, reading & literacy instruction, nutrition, as well as tongue ties has been completed.
Other accomplishments include:
* Developed an iPad application for Speech Pathologists called CASE.
* Author the blog 'The Speech Language Parent.'
* Licensed in NY, NC, & VA
Christine has extensive continuing education and continues to love learning and growing as a therapist! She is trained in PROMPT, VitalStim (NMES) for swallowing, ABA, SOS Approach to Feeding, DIRFloortime Certified, and trained in Oromyofunctional therapy through the IAOM, the TummyTime Method(TM), Oral Placement Therapy (OPT), and SOFFI for premature babies and medically fragile infants. She is also a Certified Lactation Supporter and Educator (CLSE). Additional post-graduate training and coursework in Autism, AAC, reading & literacy instruction, nutrition, as well as tongue ties has been completed.
Other accomplishments include:
* Developed an iPad application for Speech Pathologists called CASE.
* Author the blog 'The Speech Language Parent.'
* Licensed in NY, NC, & VA
Alison Baade, MS CCC-SLP, TSSLD
Alison Baade MS CCC-SLP has a passion for helping children with hearing loss learn to communicate! She also enjoys working with stroke and aphasic individuals and helping them learn to communicate once again. She has experience serving a variety of clients such as those with hearing loss, language delays and disorders, articulation and phonological disorders, reading difficulties, aphasia, and other motor speech disorders (e.g., apraxia of speech) from birth to geriatric populations. She is proficient in American Sign Language and has experience developing her own treatment approach. Alison is excited to work with each of her clients and their families to reach their communication potential.
Sofya Mullady M.S., CCC-SLP
Sofya graduated from Molloy College with a Masters in Communication Sciences and Disorders. She has experience with children and adults with a range of cognitive-linguistic, speech and swallow disorders. Sofya is currently working at a skilled nursing facility in Brooklyn with the geriatric population. She has a special interest in TBI and Dysphagia. Raised in Queens, Sofya speaks Russian and some Spanish. She excited to engage with new families and clients to help them achieve their communicative goals.
Sylvia Zaki, MA CCC-SLP
Sylvia is Boston University graduate who enjoys working with all populations, but has a soft spot for feeding difficulty and voice disorders. She has experience working across the lifespan in several settings, targeting motor speech, language, cognition, AAC, as well as PVFM and cough. She has extensive experience with the early intervention and autism populations. Her main goal is integrating functional strategies into the everyday activities of the client. Sylvia is a strong believer that any and everything can be used to target communication, and is passionate about including and training caregivers in the therapy of each client, prioritizing a holistic approach in treatment. With that in mind, she is working toward using her fluency in Arabic to reach more people in her local community.
Nicole Muia, MA CCC-SLP, TSSLD
Nicole Muia has been working as a speech language pathologist since 2006. She graduated from Arizona State University with a B.S. in speech and hearing sciences and received an M.A. from Hofstra University in speech language pathology. Nicole has worked in a variety of settings, including public schools, rehabilitation and nursing centers, private clinics, self-contained and inclusive schools, as well as home care. During those experiences, she was able to treat children and adults with an array of challenges, including language disorders, motor speech disorders, learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, fluency disorders, and feeding difficulties. She is trained in PROMPT and Talk Tools. Nicole has a good knowledge base of children with reading and writing impairments and has collaborated closely with teachers who executed the OG curricula. Her experiences have led her to be a flexible thinker and considerate therapist.
Our Location
We have two convenient locations that are clean, safe and happy places to be!
2043 Wellwood Ave
Farmingdale NY
(Within The Nesting Place LI Facility)
This family friendly environment is calm and relaxing and has activities for the whole family to participate in.
Farmingdale NY
(Within The Nesting Place LI Facility)
This family friendly environment is calm and relaxing and has activities for the whole family to participate in.
We Are Passionate About Making A Difference!
At Cove Speech Therapy, we believe that you shouldn’t have to struggle everyday, and not knowing how your child will be in the future is enough to keep you awake for hours each night. We understand that your kids are not acting this way to be defiant or because they can't focus. It’s because there are underlying skill deficits and they are doing the best that they can with the skills they have. That’s why we work with you and your family to develop a plan that will get you to where you want to be.
For that to happen though, something needs to change. You need to know where to begin, what the underlying deficits are, and how hard to push in order to get to that place. The problem is you don’t have the expertise on your own to make that happen, which makes you think, “will they ever just be like every other kid?" It feels hopeless and you are just barely able to keep your head above water.
We have extensive training that allows us to identify and correct the underlying skill deficits that are resulting in the challenges you see every day. Most therapists do not get into these deep levels of training and therefore only are looking at the surface issues.
Here's how it works: You book an appointment with our highly skilled and caring therapists and we do an in-depth analysis to determine the root cause of the issues. We develop a plan that lays out how to get from where you are right now to where you want to be. Then we reinforce what you learn with us at home throughout the week and slowly we fade out so you are flying on your own.
So give us a call, so you can stop seeing your children struggle and start seeing that confidence and those smiles that make your heart happy.
For that to happen though, something needs to change. You need to know where to begin, what the underlying deficits are, and how hard to push in order to get to that place. The problem is you don’t have the expertise on your own to make that happen, which makes you think, “will they ever just be like every other kid?" It feels hopeless and you are just barely able to keep your head above water.
We have extensive training that allows us to identify and correct the underlying skill deficits that are resulting in the challenges you see every day. Most therapists do not get into these deep levels of training and therefore only are looking at the surface issues.
Here's how it works: You book an appointment with our highly skilled and caring therapists and we do an in-depth analysis to determine the root cause of the issues. We develop a plan that lays out how to get from where you are right now to where you want to be. Then we reinforce what you learn with us at home throughout the week and slowly we fade out so you are flying on your own.
So give us a call, so you can stop seeing your children struggle and start seeing that confidence and those smiles that make your heart happy.
What People Are Saying...
Al and I cannot thank you enough for all you have done for Matthew. You have truly opened his world teaching Matthew to use his iPad to communicate. You have made a world of difference in our lives.
-Susan
Christine is very friendly and caring. Worked with my daughter for 6 months and consistently gave me advice, support, and information for other resources that she felt my child would benefit from. A wonderful person who is very good at what she does.
-Linda
Thank you for all you have done to make my uncle's life so much more pleasant and functional during that season of his life. Seeing Alison each Sunday was the highlight of his day!
-Patrick
My family and I highly recommend Cove Speech Language and Feeding Therapy. My son went from speaking one word utterances to full sentences, learned turn taking skills, gained a better understanding of question asking and responding, strengthened eye contact and so much more! Christine was always very patient, reliable, and my son always looked forward to their sessions!
-Elizabeth
#BEST FOOD THERAPIST EVER ... compassionate, kind and caring. We are so grateful to have found a therapist that really understands our child and works with us as a family to accomplish our goals.
-Trisha
-Susan
Christine is very friendly and caring. Worked with my daughter for 6 months and consistently gave me advice, support, and information for other resources that she felt my child would benefit from. A wonderful person who is very good at what she does.
-Linda
Thank you for all you have done to make my uncle's life so much more pleasant and functional during that season of his life. Seeing Alison each Sunday was the highlight of his day!
-Patrick
My family and I highly recommend Cove Speech Language and Feeding Therapy. My son went from speaking one word utterances to full sentences, learned turn taking skills, gained a better understanding of question asking and responding, strengthened eye contact and so much more! Christine was always very patient, reliable, and my son always looked forward to their sessions!
-Elizabeth
#BEST FOOD THERAPIST EVER ... compassionate, kind and caring. We are so grateful to have found a therapist that really understands our child and works with us as a family to accomplish our goals.
-Trisha